Today's Pan-Mass Challenge raising millions for cancer research

The thousands of Pan-Mass Challenge bicyclists streaming onto Route 20 at daybreak today are creating their own journey to the promised land of a world without cancer.

Pan-Mass founder and president Billy Starr -- cutting his own pedaling path for 33 years - initially against great odds -- has now ridden nearly 12,000 miles during this event.

He is directly responsible for raising $400 million, to date, for cancer research.

So far this year $25 million has been collected toward the 2013 goal of $38 million. When all receipts have been collected from the annual ride, the total raised since 1980 is expected to reach $413 million.

Mr. Starr and his 5,506 riding companions on Saturday departed the Host Hotel in Sturbridge and Wellesley's Babson College campus en route to Provincetown as much for the experience, camaraderie and passion, as for the sense of mission and purpose.

"You know, it's highly emotional riding, seeing a child with no hair at the end of a driveway saying 'thank you,' that gets to you," said veteran Pan-Mass cyclist Al Wood, 69, of Boston.

"This ride gives you an athletic experience, a spiritual experience and an emotional experience."

Riding for the 12th year, Mr. Wood was asked what keeps him coming back.

"The job's not done," he said.

"There is no question the PMC is like an emotional clearinghouse of the synergy of the human spirit," Mr. Starr, 62, said in an interview. "It represents the better values of the human condition."

The PMC founder stands solid as a rock, trim, a model of good health.

The movement to fight for a cure to all forms of cancer is analogous to the Civil Rights and anti-war marches that occurred in the nation's capital in the 1960s - people power for justice and a better life, he said.

"What is being replicated by the masses [of bicyclists] takes you back to the marches on Washington -- what you can do when people do better, when people mobilize in a righteous cause, it gives you faith in humanity," Mr. Starr said. "To think a bike event can be a conduit for all that good-will is to say it ended up exactly where it should."

Kelly Dolan, 28, lost her mother this past year to ovarian cancer. She is riding for the first time with her husband Jay, 33, who grew up in Sterling. The couple now live in Naples, Fla.

"It still hurts, Mrs. Dolan said, trying to hold back tears.

"It's hopeful. When I decided to ride last year, I wanted her to see me," she said. "And we are still doing it. We need to keep fighting until no one is lost to it." Mrs. Dolan grew up in Quncy. She and her husband ride a twin bike.

Progress in the fight against cancer is being made, and more breakthroughs are right around the corner, according to Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr. He is Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of pediatrics, and professor of genetics.

Dr. Benz is also president and chief executive officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute -- where most of the money raised by the Challenge is donated.

A two-pronged approach to cancer treatment -- with medicines that enhance immune system function and directly counteract the debilitating effects of cancer - shows great promise, he said.

"I think we are finally able to make drugs that give the immune system a boost to reject the tumor," Dr. Benz said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "We may just be cracking the ice on a whole new field of immunotherapy, that is converging with the use of genetically targeted therapies that attack the cancer itself."

Dr. Benz calls the breakthrough "hitting the cancer with a left jab and a right cross at the same time."

Funding cutting edge research and attracting the brightest, most promising newer doctors are among the greatest benefits from the PMC money, Dr. Benz said.

Because the newest doctors typically are among those least likely to receive research grants, the unrestricted nature of the PMC cash provides a way to fund new ideas and attract the best help, he said.

Dana-Farber can "invest in young people that often have the best and brightest ideas but who traditionally have the hardest time obtaining funding," the hospital president said.

A Worcester man who grew up in the Ukraine is riding his first Challenge with Team Grodsky. The team is named after Harry Grodsky & Co. where Alex Groza, 27, works. He moved to Worcester at age 15 from Uzhgorod in western Ukraine.

Team Grodsky has 20 riders, a 100 percent increase from a year ago when they fielded 10. And the team goal this year of raising $150,000 was surpassed. As of Friday $155,000 had been collected.

In existence since 2011, Team Grodsky has raised nearly a half-million dollars in total for the PMC.

"Last year I was volunteering. I saw a guy riding with one hand, one leg, I said: 'Hell, I can do it,'" Mr. Groza said. "This is amazing, mind-blowing, raising money for cancer (research) is amazing."

The team was started when a company employee, Tom Mahan, developed multiple myeloma, a cancer that attacks plasma in the bone marrow.

As cyclists lined up to ride out at 5:30 a.m., Mr. Starr was on a loudspeaker encouraging everyone.

The national anthem was sung by noted opera singer Andrew Garland, 36.

A rider in the Pan-Mass since 1992, the baritone practices his singing three hours a day. Mr. Garland is in rehearsal for the Boston Lyric Opera's fall production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute," when he performs as Papageno.

But this weekend is different.

"Everybody, I don't care who you are, everybody's life have been touched by cancer and everybody wants to do something about it. I happen to be a cyclist and this is something I can do to find a cure for cancer," Mr. Garland said.

This year's event drew riders from 38 states and five countries. More than 3,000 volunteers assisted.